You don't know me yet, maybe you do.
If you don't, you will get to know me by reading this blog. If you know me, you might learn more about me, reading this blog, since I don't have the time to keep up with all of you.
I'm a witty, young at heart hobby cook, always in for a good time, craving carbs but not eating many. An open book to many, spontaneous, outgoing, loving and caring personality with Type 1 diabetes.

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Sunday, February 7, 2010

I'm painfully aware..

Diabetes is not some disease you can ignore. If I hear other diabetics say: "My sugar levels are somehow elevated, but not dramatically", or "I'm not a severe diabetic, I don't shoot up insulin", it hurts. It means these people are not informed well. And not being informed well, means you may underestimate the silent killer Diabetes is. Because that's what it is: a silent killer. If you don't acknowledge the fact that you have this chronic disease, you will certainly not take good care of yourself.

Many type 2 diabetics still don't have a glucose meter, because they find it too expensive, or too confronting to see the numbers appear. This is the group of people that sees a doctor like once a year. That's the only time they hear about their glucose levels. For the rest of the year, they might think they're doing great, but in the meantime, their body is suffering and crying for help. Sticking your head in the sand and thus ignoring the symptoms, is not much of a help and it's certainly not going to make your diabetes go away.

I'm happy to hear that there is also a large group of type 2 diabetics who do take care of themselves. They try their best and they learn as much about their condition as possible, to prevent getting complications in the future.

Having diabetes is not the end of the world. It's a pain, I admit it, and it needs your full time attention. Ignoring the fact you have this condition, may be compared to committing a slow suicide. Because that's what you're doing. You are slowly killing yourself and the problem is, you don't feel it coming until complications start showing.

Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of Talk, had a show on diabetes, just this week. Many people were stuck to their couch, to hear what she and Dr Oz had to say. And even more people were very disappointed, to hear what Dr Oz had to say.. It was such a great opportunity to show the world that there is more to diabetes than what he informed. It was a chance to tell the world that there are different types of diabetes and no, type 1 diabetes DOES NOT go away with exercise and low carb food intake.. How many people will now believe, that us, type 1 diabetics caused our own condition?? Let me be straight: we didn't!Dr Oz said diabetes is reversible, without mentioning what type diabetes he was talking about. No Dr Oz, type 1 is NOT reversible! How come Dr Oz - a cardiologist - was doing this show with Oprah, and not an endocrinologist? These mistakes could have been prevented by a diabetes specialist.

The following video may be too confronting for some. The 44 yo woman in this video has diabetes type 1. She has ignored her diabetes for many years, leaving her with kidney failure, half a leg amputated and a partial foot amputation. This is not where you want to be at the age of 44.. it's really not where you want to be. Her poor condition is not caused by adjusting her insulin to the carbs she ate (as the programme stated!), because that's just what we HAVE to do. I feel for the lady in the video.. her complications are severe and not very hopeful. But that's not how all of us diabetics will end up. Sorry Dr Oz, Sorry Oprah, but this time, you were wrong.